“Okay, I’ll show you where it is.” He walked to the door and pointed down the hall at the restrooms that were there close by. “Make sure you hurry back, okay?”
Wow. This was going to be easier than even Popeye had thought. Grown-ups weren’t just weird.
Sometimes they were really dumb.
CHAPTER 26
The lines were converging, but their convergence was odd. Darc had never experienced this before, this coming together of the gray and the gloaming. The streaks of light melded with the gray backdrop, illuminating and giving color and texture to its previously formless mass. And each hill, each valley was another bit of precious information that was leading them onward.
Whether or not this ended up being a successful endeavor, the blending of the two seemingly opposing viewpoints was… beautiful. Darc was beginning to understand, in an imperfect way, why so many seemed enamored or even obsessed with their emotional lives. It was an incomplete view, but it was expanding with each pairing of logical threads and gray landscapes.
Now, Darc hoped that it would prove helpful in finding Trey. As they rounded the corner leading to the warehouse, Darc noticed a car parked across the street from the squat building. A 1994 Honda Accord. Bill Harris’s car.
“He is here,” Darc said, pointing to the car. Mala nodded as she saw the vehicle he had pointed out. Darc pulled the Land Rover up to the curb about a block away from the Accord. No need to park right next to their principal suspect.
Opening the door, he was once more assaulted by the odor of rotting milk. That odor now took on a much more sinister meaning. Rather than being the result of the factory being close to a dairy processing plant, it now seemed to indicate a method of covering over the scent of decaying flesh.
As they approached the building, Darc looked for the telltale red lights of the cameras that he knew were there and operational. The killer had shown such an uncanny awareness of surveillance cameras that there was very little possibility that he was not using that same technology himself.
Darc had no illusions of being able to enter without detection, but he did have a desire to know at what point the killer would know of their presence. As he scanned the façade of the building, he discovered not one, but two points of light, with one camera facing the street, and another above the entrance, pointed at the steps in front.
It was possible that the killer had employed cameras farther out, one at each intersection leading to the building, in which case this entire process would be rendered moot. But Darc would do all that he could to keep their profile to a minimum.
If they were to move around the side of the building to the back, using the entrance that Trey and he had found the last time they were here, they might escape detection for a few more precious moments. It would be worth the additional time and care that they would take for their approach.
Motioning to Mala to stay silent and follow behind him, Darc made his way around the side of the building to the rear. As they passed around the back corner of the building, Darc could see that the back door was wide open.
That did not seem like a positive development.
Darc pulled his gun out of its holster and again gestured for Mala to stay behind him. He moved toward the door, staying close to the wall of the building.
As he entered through the door, the sudden drop in lighting kept him blind for a moment. When his vision cleared, he found himself face-to-face with the barrel of a Magnum 357 pistol.
Their attempt at a stealthy entrance had apparently failed.
*
Another weird thing about grown-ups? They never looked in the backseat of their cars.
Janey had snuck into one of the cars that was getting ready to go to where Darc and Mala were. They said that it was backup, but when the car started driving it went forward. That was dumb.
Popeye said that it was because they were trying to trick the bad guys, but Janey didn’t know why that would trick anybody. As soon as they saw the cars, they’d see they were driving straight ahead. Duh.
Popeye stuck his tongue out at her. He always did that when he didn’t know what to say to argue with her. Silly bear.
It took a while for them to get close to where Darc and Mala were. Janey could hear the two policemen talking to each other and saying that they weren’t supposed to go into the building for fifteen minutes. Then they would go in and help. Darc and Mala would be mad, maybe, but they weren’t just going to let them rot. Janey wasn’t sure what that meant, but fifteen minutes was the same as one SpongeBob. Janey remembered.
So when the car stopped, Janey knew she didn’t have tons and tons of time. One SpongeBob was pretty short.
She waited until the policemen got out of the car and walked over to one of the other cars that was there. None of them were like the cars she sometimes saw policemen in. They were just regular cars.
Popeye was getting itchy, so Janey decided it was time to open the door. She made sure it was the one on the other side of where the other policemen were so they wouldn’t see her. And she was very, very, quiet, even though Popeye kept telling her she was making so much noise. Irritating bear.
She moved around the corner from where all the cars were, ducking down like she was in one of Daddy’s action movies. Except she was smaller.
When she moved around the corner, she stood up straighter. There weren’t any policemen around here. That made her feel both more excited and more scared. She was going to help. She was a good helper. Daddy had always said so. Mommy said so sometimes, when Janey had done the dishes or made her bed.
The building had doors and stuff, but Popeye said that’s what they’ll be expecting. Janey didn’t know what that meant, but she saw a grate in the wall and it looked like it was loose. She could go through there like she had at the scary place with all the meat and the snakes.
Popeye wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. He hadn’t had such a good time at that place.
But Janey knew that if she went through a door, a grown-up might see her. And if a grown-up saw her, it would either be a really, really bad grown-up, or it would be Darc or Mala. If it were Darc or Mala, they would send her away. If it were a bad grown-up, Janey didn’t even want to think about it.
She pulled on the metal grate until it popped off with a big clang. It scared Popeye a lot, even though he said it didn’t. Sometimes Popeye lied. But Janey didn’t care about any of that right now.
It was time to go help Mala and Darc.
*
It was Bill Harris. With a gun. Pointed at Darc.
Oh, and at Mala. She was right behind Darc. And while Darc might provide some sort of protection for her, she had no idea how powerful that gun was.
But then the private investigator did the strangest thing. He lowered his gun and placed it back in its holster. He then began moving toward Darc and Mala, whispering to both of them.
“I didn’t think I’d find you two here. Did he call you, too?”
Mala shook her head. “What are you talking about? What have you done with Trey?”
“Trey? You still think that was me?”
“Well, what else would you be doing here?” Mala fired back.
Bill held up his hands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m here because of the text. I thought that was why you were here, too.”
“Text? What text?” Everything that Mala thought she knew about what was going on was rapidly being tossed out the window. Bill Harris was the killer. Bill Harris was her abductor. If not, nothing else made any sense.
“This text.” Bill got his phone out of his pocket and opened the text. If you want to find Trey, come alone. Then the address of the warehouse.
Darc’s voice echoed out in the empty space. “That text is from the prepaid cellular device that was the only number listed on the phone on Kyle Carson’s desk.”
Mala felt like her assumptions were a house of cards that were collapsing as fast as she could put them up. How was this possible? A
n idea blossomed in her brain.
“He could have sent that to himself.”
“Are you kidding?” Bill replied. “Why would I do that?”
“That is indeed a possibility,” Darc declared. “It would remove suspicion from yourself long enough to gain our trust.”
“Okay, okay, I can see that,” Bill assented. “But, c’mon! I’m not that smart. I’m the guy you go to when you want something legal but nasty done. I’m not a kidnapper. I’m not a murderer.” He looked from Mala to Darc, seeming to be searching for any indication that they might believe him.
“There’s too much evidence for it all to be a coincidence,” Mala pushed back. “You knew things ahead of time. The knife. The Jesus stuff.”
“What do you mean, Jesus stuff?” the private investigator snorted. “All that Biblical mumbo jumbo about the seven whatever-the-hell that was? Look, guys, I just don’t take all that religion stuff too seriously.”
“You were recently converted to a belief in Jesus,” Darc contradicted the man.
“Well, yeah, but that’s mostly about staying sober and… you know… not being a douchebag,” Bill stated. “I’m a total believer. I just think most religion’s kinda crap. Big difference, at least to me. And as for—”
“Whatever,” Mala cut in. “You can talk all day long about how it’s all one big coincidence, but I saw the pictures you took of me. The receipts for this place and the copy of my apartment you built were at your place.”
Bill’s forehead crinkled up. “As far as those receipts go, I told you already, I’ve never seen ‘em before in my life.” He held up his hand to forestall Mala’s next outburst. “I know. I wouldn’t believe me either. But listen…” He took a deep breath. “I can tell you about the pictures. I did take them.”
The sudden admission shocked Mala into silence. The fact that he was acknowledging something that appeared so damning forced her to pay attention to the rest of what he was saying. She nodded at him to continue.
“There’s not an easy way to say this.” He cleared his throat. “I… Well, I thought it might be you.”
“You thought…?” Mala’s brain felt like it had blown a fuse.
“It seems ridiculous now, but I didn’t know you. It seemed like it had to be someone who knew a lot about procedure, and I’ve never seen anyone stay ahead of Darc that well. Just seemed like an inside job, you know? I didn’t want someone that Trey obviously trusted to get the drop on him.” It was eerily close to what Mala’s response had been when she’d seen all the evidence against Bill. Still…
“You thought that it was me?” Mala’s tone rose up to an almost shriek.
“Yeah. Sorry.” Bill shrugged his shoulders, his face apologetic. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re like the nicest person I’ve ever stalked.”
Mala wasn’t sure exactly where that put her in the pecking order, considering the usual ilk a private investigator encountered. But Harris’s reasoning about her own possible guilt did make a strange sort of sense. Against her better judgment, Mala found that she believed the investigator.
It appeared she wasn’t the only one. Darc moved to Harris’s side. “This explanation is acceptable for the moment. However, with all of the evidence against you, I will need to take your weapon from you.”
Bill sighed and shrugged again. “I guess that makes sense. Even though I feel naked as a jaybird without it.” He pulled his pistol back out of his holster and handed it over to Darc, who thrust it into the back of his waistband. Mala thought about asking for it, but realized that with no practical shooting experience, she’d be more likely to hit one of her companions than the actual killer.
The three of them moved forward into the open space ahead of them toward the door that led to the apartment. It had a Plexiglas window, which showed nothing but more dimly lit hallway on the other side. Mala noticed the thick layer of dust on the floor they were crossing, with only one set of footprints marring its surface. With a jolt, she realized that those prints were her own from when she had escaped the first time. She was back in her own personal nightmarish version of hell.
Except this time, she was walking toward it, not away.
*
It was kinda cramped inside the vent, but it was okay because Janey was small. Popeye was even smaller, but he complained more. Lots more.
He didn’t like it ‘cause it was dark. And smelly. And dark. And cold. And dark.
Popeye was such a baby. He was the only reason Janey still slept with a nightlight. She had been ready to get rid of it a long time ago. Well, sort of.
But now she came to a place where there was another grate. This one was on the side of a room down by the floor, instead of in the ceiling like the rest had been, so Janey could get out and look around. Maybe that would make Popeye happier.
You could never tell with Popeye.
When Janey got out of the vent, she could see that she was in an office. It looked a little bit like Daddy’s office, except Daddy’s office was warm and friendly and they had lollipops that the lady at the front would give her.
No lollipops here.
There were a lot of pictures, though. Pictures of Darc, pictures of Trey, pictures of that man that was Trey’s friend. He was short and kinda ugly, but he had nice eyes. There were also pictures of Mala. Lots and lots and lots of pictures of Mala.
The pictures made her feel all squiggly inside her stomach, but not the good kind of squiggly. It was the kind of squiggly she got when Mommy would tell her to give Uncle Billy a kiss. Thing was, he wasn’t really her uncle. And he smiled at her funny.
Popeye hated him.
This was like that but lots worse.
There were also some other pictures. They were like the pictures that Janey had sometimes seen Trey and Darc look at when they thought she wasn’t looking. Ones with people that looked like Mommy and Daddy had that last time she had seen them.
Thinking about things like that made her sad, but she knew that even though Mommy and Daddy weren’t with her any more, they were there and they loved her. They had told her that when Grammy had died.
She’s not here, but she’s with you and she loves you and you’ll see her again.
That was what Daddy said, and he never lied. Never.
She would see Mommy and Daddy someday. But for now, she had to help Darc and Mala. So even though it was hard to look at the pictures, she did it anyway.
And next to the scary pictures was another picture that looked like it came out of a book. The one side was ripped, like when Janey had ripped out the picture of the puppy from that book from the library. Mommy had been so mad, but the puppy was so cute.
But this picture was of something else. A place.
There was a loud noise, and Janey scurried back into the vent. The sound didn’t seem like it was close, but Popeye said that was it and he didn’t want to be there anymore. And since Janey didn’t want to be by herself, it only made sense that she would go.
Not because she was scared. That was Popeye. He stuck his tongue out at her again. Naughty bear.
Just to prove that she wasn’t afraid, she started moving down the shaft back toward where she had heard the sound. That would show Popeye.
For once, Popeye didn’t say anything back.
*
As Darc moved through the doorway that led into a narrow hall, Mala was right behind him, almost pressed up against him in an apparent desire to stay as close as possible. It was the only thing that kept the two of them together, as the door slammed shut immediately after they crossed the threshold.
Spinning around, Darc watched as the threads of light swarmed around Bill’s face in the Plexiglas window, trying to make sense of what had just happened. If the expression the private investigator wore wasn’t enough to tell Darc that this had not been his doing, the banging that immediately started on the door was. Testing the door, Darc found that it had been bolted shut somehow. The lock mechanism was not to be found on this side of the door,
but from Bill’s frantic pounding, it was clearly not there either.
There had been a split second in which Darc had thought that the door slamming shut could have been Bill Harris turning the tables on them both after gaining a portion of their trust. But somehow that seemed unlikely. Even given the preponderance of circumstantial evidence against the private investigator, the gray landscape had lit up in several places for Darc while Harris was speaking. The surprise he had evinced when first confronted with the presence of Mala and Darc. The confession he had forced himself to reveal regarding the photographs taken of Mala.
Even the P.I.’s suspicion of Mala was a mark on the investigator’s side, rather than against. It was an area of investigation that Darc himself should have pursued, had he not been enamored of the subject of that line of questioning.
The only other plausible explanation for the shut door was that the killer was here and aware of their presence. In any case, the need for stealth was now past. Darc pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.
“Calling for backup?” Mala breathed, her tone radiating a tone that before would have been nothing but gray, but now seemed to suggest relief.
But as Darc flipped open his cell, he could see that there was no coverage. Either the thick walls of the warehouse were blocking the signal, or the wireless signal was being actively jammed. He showed Mala the problem, and watched as her face seemed to collapse in on itself.
The need for quiet was even further shattered as Bill’s face was whipped away from the window, his body reeling back from some unseen attacker. He was bleeding profusely from his nose, which appeared to be broken.
A figure appeared in front of the window, his back to Darc and Mala. He was covered from head to toe in what appeared to be white painter’s coveralls. In one hand he held the long rod of a fighting baton. In the other was a chainsaw.
The white apparition lashed out with the hand that held the baton. The springy rod of metal whistled through the air and caught Bill across the jaw, more than likely snapping the bone. The logic lines glowed softly as they calculated the angle and speed of the impact, confirming that yes, indeed, the jawbone was broken.
7th Sin: The Sequel to the #1 Hard Boiled Mystery, 9th Circle (Book 2 of the Darc Murders Series) Page 28